Welcome to the New Black Renaissance

47% of young girls, between the ages of 11 and 14, suffer from low self-esteem. According to Guttmacher Institute’s April 2016 article, American Teens’ Sources of Sexual Health Education , “The share of adolescent females receiving formal instruction about how to say no to sex but receiving no instruction about birth control methods increased from 22% to 26% between 2006–2010 and 2011–2013.” This was the type of instruction that I received. This type of education did NOT work. Saxon Walker is establishing her first organization, Developing Individual Feminism, with the intent of creating a safe space for teenager to discuss topics and acquire knowledge about issues in their everyday lives. The topics can range from sex and vaginal health to make up, skin care, and self-esteem. There have always been questions left unanswered or topics that were deemed inappropriate to speak about in my life when it came to women’s sexual health, but Saxon’s purpose behind this business is ...

“Negro life is seizing upon its first chance for group expression and self-determination.” - Alain Locke, speaking on Harlem as a united Negro community. The New Negro , 1925 The Harlem Renaissance, also known as the New Negro movement, was an artistic movement that occurred in Harlem, New York during the 1920's. This literary, artistic, and intellectual explosion kindled a new black cultural identity. With the intent to counteract the rise in racism post World War I, black artists, writers, and musicians created their art with flair that challenged stereotypes of African American culture. Racial consciousness came along with the movement. With the influx of migration to the area, Harlem became the Black Mecca, not only for artists, but for business owners and migrants from the South looking for a change. In Alain Locke’s anthology, The New Negro , Locke compared the “Old Negro” to the “New Negro” by emphasizing assertiveness and self-confidence shown by the race after ...

I’ve loved writing since I was 12 years old. I couldn’t stop myself from daydreaming scenarios and putting them into words on paper. As I got older, I struggled to understand how I could translate that into a paying job; my mom always warned me about The Starving Artist, and the one thing I loved more than writing was eating. Even after attending and graduating college with a degree that would lead me in the direction of being a writer, the pressure to compete financially in the employment world turned my attention away from a craft that I honed for over a decade. Five years later, as my company celebrates my longevity, I can’t help but wonder what went wrong? I started my job at H&M a month before I graduated college. I knew that I needed to make an income in some form, and I had previous retail experience from my college years. H&M provided retail with added perks: their benefits were awesome, the pay was out of this world for an associate, and the possibility of devel...